[TheForge] How do you do this?

[RIES NIEMI]

I use four ways to scale up drawings to full size patterns:

1- the oldest fashioned way- freehand it. This takes years of practicing,
but amazingly enough, I get older every year, and slowly have gotten able to
do this.

2- blow it up on the xerox machine. This works up to a certain size- 2 or 3
times 11 x 17 ( ie 22 x 34) is about the max, but for a lot of stuff it is
quick, easy, and to the point.

3- rulers, compasses, and calculator.  You take your original drawing,
figure out the multiplying factor to get it to the size you want, and then
measure each dimension, multiply, and redraw. The calculator comes in handy
when your multiplier is something like 2.47. I use a string and a pencil for
a very large compass, or I have a set of starret machinists compass points
that mount on rectangular bar, and use a 12foot piece of aluminum bar the
right size. Havent had to draw any circles bigger than 24 foot too often.
Its labor intensive, but often I will use this to block out the rough size
and shape, then sketch in the details freehand.

4- opaque projector- you can get these at most art supply stores. you put
your drawing on, and you can move the projector the proper distance from the
wall to get just about any size you want. They cost about 150 bucks for a
decent one, use slide projector bulbs available at any camera store. They
are usually limited to about a 10" square original, so you may have to
enlarge or reduce your original first, either on a computer or a copy
machine. You also need a dark room to use them in. Maximum useful
enlargement is somewhere around 8' x 8', but you can blow things up in
sections, then tape em together. You could also use a slide projector
similarly, but you would have to take slides first. you can put anything on
the opaque projector.

as you mentioned, you could also blow things up in the computer, then print
scads of 8 1/2 x 11's, and tape or glue stick them together. However, you
get into pretty large file sizes, and its hard to keep all those tiles
aligned if you get very big.